New numerical power IGBT model and simulation of its electrical characteristics

The great advances in power electronic technology and the rapid development of power semiconductor devices both in power and switching frequency ranges, have led to all increasing interest in the use of insulated gale bipolar transistor (IGBT) device in industrial applications. At the same time, the importance of simulation in the research and development increases. For years, this fact could be observed in microelectronics whereas in power electronics simulation has mostly been restricted. This lack of simulation is due to limitation in two key elements: simulation tools and models for power devices like IGBT. The aim of this paper, is to present a new approach which consists in defining our computer program (numerical model) of the IGBT based on the finite element technique (FEM), to offer an easy to use IGBT and other devices for our program, showing short computing time and reasonable accuracy, to predict and understand the behavior of various topologies of devices, to perform automated layout of the device to overcome some of the difficulties associated with analytical methods and to identify the failure mechanisms, then we propose some remedies. The validity of our computer program (this approach) is confirmed by comparison between simulation and theory results as well as the manufacture's data, and a good agreement is recorded for IGBT devices.